Recently, researchers have discovered ternary metal oxides, such as YBa.sub.2 Cu.sub.3 O.sub.7, which exhibit virtually no electrical resistance at relatively high temperatures of approximately 93.degree. Kelvin. Other researchers have proposed other metal oxide compounds which also exhibit the characteristics of a "superconductor", for example MBa.sub.2 Cu.sub.3 O.sub.7, where M is one of the elements of the rare earth series.
These superconducting compounds are produced for laboratory analysis by: mixing the oxide forms of the metals together; pressing the mixture into a pellet; sintering the pellet at a temperature of about 1,000.degree.; grinding the sintered pellet, then repeating the mixing, pressing and sintering steps. After the compound is formed, it is oxygen annealed. However, this method is not considered industrially viable because the sintered mixture is extremely hard and abrades the grinding apparatus thereby introducing impurities into the superconducting compound and the method is labor intensive.
Alternately, a co-precipitation method has been proposed. In the co-precipitation method, the nitrates of the metal components are mixed, in solution, and co-precipitation is initiated by using a material, such as sodium carbonate. The co-precipitate is then heated overnight thereby forming the superconducting compound. This method is plagued with problems of non-uniform precipitation of the product and contamination of the product by the precipitating agents.
Accordingly, there is a need for a simple and inexpensive method of producing superconducting metal oxide compounds.